Seniormost High Court judge retires

Justice Nagaraja Rao Kumar (N Kumar), the seniormost judge of the Karnataka High Court, retired on Monday after 16 years in service.

Delivering his farewell speech, Justice Kumar expressed satisfaction about his service and the judgments he delivered and cited his ruling on the disqualification of 11 MLAs during the BJP government. He said that though the High Court did not accept the verdict, stating that disqualification was not correct, his judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Justice Kumar said that everything in the world had changed drastically, except for the legal system as it maintained its sanctity. He expressed concern over the growing number of pending cases and the long delay in their disposal. He said that if justice was not delivered on time, people would start losing faith in the judicial system.

The retiring judge lamented the “casteist, politics-ridden and business-minded” environment in the bar which, he said, had lost the old school practice of ‘guru and shishya’.

“Although young advocates have wonderful language skills, it is unfortunate that their intelligence is not channelised. If they are not guided in the right direction, they will become a menace to society,” he said.